Some of these exchanges are already advertising Petro on their websites.

The websites of Cave Blockchain, Bancar, and Cryptia say these exchanges are headquartered in Venezuelan capital Caracas, while Amberes Coin claims to be a "cryptoactive exchange house authorized by the Venezuelan State for the purchase and sale of petro, bitcoin, and ether". Criptolago also is a Venezuelan exchange.

As announced by President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month, Venezuelans can buy Petros for Bolivar Soberano from November 5. "They will buy real property, flight tickets, goods, services and save money in our gold, iron, diamond, aluminum and oil-backed cryptocurrency," Maduro said while launching Petro as the national currency.

The government also issued a new white paper on Petro, describing the basic concepts of the technology behind it.

It says Petro is no longer backed fully by a barrel of oil. Instead, it is backed by 50 percent oil, 20 percent gold, 20 percent iron, and 10 percent diamond.

In a currency reform introduced in August, the Maduro government replaced the old bolivar fuerte currency with the bolívar soberano, or sovereign bolivars. The highly devalued new currency has a fixed exchange rate to the petro. Each unit of the cryptocurrency will be equivalent to 3,600 bolívar soberanos.